Brian's Blog

June 2010 - Network Innovations

29
Jun

Windows 7 has officially been shipping for 8 months now, and as support for Windows XP winds down, it is time to consider an upgrade.

First, a little background: NO ONE hated Windows Vista more than I did. I suffered through Vista for quite some time, and it was a drain on my productivity. We held back and I’m sure we sold less than 5 copies of Vista total. When Windows 7 was released, I was skeptical to say the least.

However, when I installed Windows 7, I was blown away. My laptop booted very quickly, and I could once again hibernate my laptop each night and not reboot for days (just like good ole XP)! Windows 7 quickly spread throughout our office, and everyone loves it. Even Marty, and we never did convince him to install Vista.

In the months since, we’ve installed Windows 7 for many clients, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Windows 7 is absolutely an improvement over Windows XP, and should be considered.

In general, Windows 7 will run about as well as XP on a given machine. If you have a newer PC, add some RAM and simply an upgrade will be fine. As always, if your PC is older, it’s probably best to purchase a new PC preloaded with Windows 7. Here are some of my favorite new features:

Do more and wait less—improvements that can accelerate boot time, sleep and resume, and overall PC performanceGet quicker access to your stuff – Pin applications to your taskbar, and they are always available with one click. Even better – JUMP lists allow you to right click a pinned app and immediately see important files and your recent history

Quickly find what you are looking for – Windows search is lightning FAST, and simultaneously searches your files and e-mails. Results come up in seconds

Manage open windows easily – maximize and resize apps simply by dragging – easily snap two applications side by side for comparisons. Hover over a pinned app to see previews of all open windows and switch between them

Manage devices more easily – Manage printers, cameras, storage devices and such from a consistent interface. If you have a laptop, you can designate a default printer by location – so when you print at work, the document goes straight to your office printer, and at home, it goes to the home printer, automatically.

We’ve found Windows 7 lives up to the hype in the real world. It’s more secure, more efficient and allows you to be more productive. If you have questions about Windows 7, give us a call today. To read more, visit Microsoft’s Windows 7 page.